Returns
by renestra-karay
Summary: People leave, people disapear, It's a war, it's normal, but it doesn't mean Charlie has to like it.
1. one drunk

_Not an update (sorry) just a reformating._

_**The boring bit**_

_I own absolutely nothing and I'm warning you in advance, this story will probably contain: _

_ swearing,_

_ hazardous spelling,_

_inappropriate grammar_

_I will always try to minimize the last two, but unfortunately I often miss words, if I get five corrections for one chapter I'll take it down and repost, if it bothers you so much don't read my stories. _

_I believe swearing to be an integral part of speech and **I will use it if it fits the character who is speaking** got it? If it offends you or something please don't read. Also I will probably update unbelievably irregularly and disappear for months at a time._

The war against Voldemort died down, this was pretty much considered to be a good thing by the populous of the wizarding world.

Bill got married to his beautiful fiancé, this inspired the same sort of feelings, but on a smaller scale.

Potter disappeared, just like that...gone. Ron was distraught, far more so than he'd been about Percy. Molly Weasly's reactions were at least as emotional as they had been at the leaving of her third son.

Charlie Weasley had considered this to be a serious injustice to his little brother, not to rate as high on his family's scale of values as his youngest brother's friend? It really never added up to him.

Of course, that had been four years before the twenty-nine year old walked into a pub somewhere in muggle London, and observed a group of young men going out of their way to destroy their livers.

"Fer pity's sake, you've had enough!" the cry was amused, and even more vocal than the rest of the group, Charlie noticed his watch read '_far too early for __**you**__ to be that pissed me-laddo_' -Charlie was fairly certain his watch had never told him that before.

"Look, Bru, help me here! He's had enough!" Charlie realized suddenly that he knew that voice, last time he'd heard that particular Scottish drawl it was barely broken and belonged to his team's new keeper. Charlie looked over to the table again, yes the young man attempting to stop his pony-tailed friend drain a further glass of some muggle drink or other was in fact professional Quidditch player, Oliver Wood. Charlie stood and walked over to the table

"Well, hey Wood, long time no see" the younger man looked up and let go of his companions glass in surprise, the ponytailed youth drained the entire glass in two seconds flat, looked at Oliver happily, commented

"see, now I've had enough Olie" and promptly fell asleep on the young keeper's arm.

"So what have you been up to lately Weasly?" asked Oliver,nonchalantly sliding along the seat a bit to let Charlie sit, somewhat squishing the person next to him. Drunk ponytail guy didn't seem to mind, he fell back slightly and curled into Oliver's shoulder. For his part Oliver didn't seem all that phased that there was a drunk guy asleep on him.

Charlie looked around the group, he had been wrong in a number of assumptions about them. For one thing, he realised, they were not in fact all male, it appeared to be a group of five young men (including Oliver) one of whom had a girlfriend with him. The couple were bickering good naturedly at one end of the table.

The second misconception was that they were all trying to drink themselves under the table, that is, apart from unconscious ponytail guy. Oliver appeared to be on his second pint of muggle beer, the tall Nordic looking man who had been referred to as "Bru" was looking absently at half a glass of whisky, the couple might have been slightly tipsy...or that might have just been what they were normally like. The sixth member of the group looked to be barely more than a kid, Charlie reckoned he was probably younger than Ginny (who was actually twenty, but in Charlie's bias big brother opinion, this made her still a kid). The kid looked sober...and didn't appear to want to be here, Charlie wondered if he was the younger brother of another member of the group.

"Are these...friends from school Wood?"the young keeper looked confused

"What...? Ah, oh, no muggles here mate." he grinned disarmingly

"In that case. I'm beginning to hate Norwegian Ridgebacks" the kid looked up at that, he had unnerving eyes, they sort of, looked old...

"Oh dear... does that mean you're gonna come back to Quidditch?" joked Wood

"Not on your life." grinned Charlie "I love dragons but I think I would hate Quidditch if I did it for a living, don't you find that?"

Wood toyed with his glass, drank and pulled a face

"I prefer butterbeer," he sighed "but no, I don't find that at all. I still love Quidditch, pity I couldn't convince you ...or the twins... or Potter to continue" he looked up "and I can't even get Ara to start playing properly, do I put people off Quidditch or something?" at the name "Ara", Wood had gestured to the kid opposite him. Charlie looked again he was, Charlie supposed, maybe nineteen, probably muggle-born, the younger raised an eyebrow at the redhead who was cross examining him.

Finaly finished with his mini rant Oliver noticed they were staring, (or was that glaring?) at each other and decided an introduction might be helpful;

"Charles Weasly, should-of-played-for-England meet Arath Jesop-Tymrer ...he should have at the very least of played for Gryfindor." he ruffled the younger males dark, messy hair, it had green highlights, muggle dye by the look of them. Arath batted away Oliver's hand.

"Weasly here works with dragons Arath." needlessly explained Oliver,

"You like dragons?" asked Charlie, Arath scratched his head

"I have a deeply founded respect and admiration for them. But no, like isn't quite right"

"Oh?" Charlie smirked, this sounded interesting

"Sorry mate you are, no offence, some bloke my flatmate's mate just introduced me to. All you're getting is I was fourteen, I shouldn't of been there, and I most definitely lost." Arath grinned

"Fair enough." Charlie snickered,

"So. Back to the original comment, what do you have against Norwegian Ridgebacks?" the dark haired youth took a sip of his drink. Charlie considered for a moment

"Um, I'm going to go with big fire breathing scary-thing with a mummy complex." Arath blinked then grinned

"O...kay, I'll bite, what in seventeen hells do you mean?"

"You're Hogwarts right?" the young man shrugged

"Well Hagrid hand reared '_baby Norbert'_ and..." Charlie waved his hands as he tried to work out how to put the situation into words, but the younger man had already got the gist of it

"Gottit, dragon thinks it's a Labrador puppy." Arath laughed

the ponytailed young man stirred from his sleep on Oliver's shoulder and groaned

"I hate alcyhol 'Livr" Wood and Arath rolled their eyes, the other three members of their drinking group chuckled, Charlie wondered how often the young man got this far drunk

"I better take Perry home guys," apologised Arath, Wood tried to protest

"Ara...you said you'd stay.."

"It's my turn to play designated apperater" said Arath good naturedly, helping his severely drunken, and now redfaced companion stand "and besides, you two will want to talk, see you soon guys, nice meeting you Charlie, good luck with that work of yours."

Charlie reckoned that Perry (aka: Drunken ponytail guy) had to be nearly as tall as Bill or Ron, Arath wasn't all that tall,and as he was doing most of the steering the pair staggered considerably as the y headed for the door. Had Charlie looked at his watch rather than sniggering at the comical figure the two cut he would have seen.

"_time for you to realize who you just saw."_


	2. two conversations

_In possession of no Internet connection, told that the generator at the ice rink I train at has failed and still pissed at the ending of Deathly Hallows (and various other parts of it). I thought I'd try and channel my feelings constructively and write some more of _Returns_:which I must now announce as AU, and on another note I'm warning you guys that **any pairing is a possibility,** it's no definite thing, my plots are subject to change without warning (this surprises me as much as anyone else) and I can promise nothing above T rating. I still own nothing._

_Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them, please keep reading and reviewing._

**A third floor apartment**

Staggering into the living room, and kicking the the door of their apartment shut with a foot Arath pushed Perry down onto their battered sofa.

"Stay there idiot and I'll get you some water." the insult was said with no real menace, but the younger of the two did sound bored with the situation, he walked quickly into the kitchen and came back with a mug of water and a couple of painkillers, sitting down next to his friend he handed over the mug, and the pills.

"You'll need those in the morning, I guarantee it. You look a right mess already" Arath paused, this needed to be talked about now, or it would most likely cause more issues.

"But that's not entirely the alcohol's fault is it Perry?" The older gritted his teeth and sipped the water

"You know damn well what it is _Arath_." he scowled

Arath didn't raise his voice, or even look annoyed, he spoke calmly as he unlaced his boots

"I do, and I choose to believe that it is only the shock and the alcohol making you cranky, and that in any other circumstance you'd of said thank you for leaving the pub to apperate you home, half carrying you up three flights of stairs, and then going to get you water." there was a small sob, Arath looked up. Perry had put the mug of water down, and his head in his hands, his fingers were raked into the font of his hair... okay too late, there were already issues, now they needed dealing with.

"Why in Merlin's name did he sodding have to turn up? If he recognized me..." Arath kicked off his boots and moved closer

"He didn't see your face, it was in Oliver's shoulder all the time he was there." he reminded his friend

"He's my brother, why would he need to?" Perry was outright sobbing now, his blood alcohol level and the stress playing havoc on his emotions, Arath shook his head. His room-mate was emotional enough when just drunk

"Perry, Perry? Look at me already Perry." exasperated Arath gently lifted the older wizard's chin slightly, just enough to gain eye contact.

"Listen to me, he hasn't seen you in over four years...and only once or twice in the last six, there's no chance of him having recognised you."

"but...but" The taller man hiccuped "He would know...wouldn't he?"

Arath sighed

"I need to phone Oliver to say that we got home okay. I'll check that Charlie doesn't suspect anything alright? There's nothing you can do about it tonight anyway, Oliver won't tell him where our flat is. Now go sleep off all that alcohol, we'll finish this conversation when you're sober." he let go of his room-mate who nodded, stood stiffly and almost tripping over the recently removed pair of footwear beside the sofa, made his way to bed. Arath curled himself into a more comfortable sitting position, and grabbed the phone from the table beside the sofa.

...**Back to the pub**...

Wood's mood went through a dramatic change once the two had left

"Dammit Perry!" he rested his head on his hand and his elbow on the table

"Don't take it out on him Wood. Wolfie wanted to leave anyway and you know it." The tall, blond man- Bru gently admonished his friend. Seeing Charlie's confused, uncomfortable look, and clearly noticing the fact the redhead was feeling out of place. The girl: a brunette with hair gelled up like a rainbow tipped explosion, explained in a low voice.

"Ara has a habit of getting called back to work – or being stuck at work whenever we want to meet up as a complete group." the girl grinned a little "His room-mate Perry. Uh, That's the one who was ..."

"Pissed off his head." Interjected her boyfriend, swigging another mouthful of whatever it was he was drinking, the girl was far from phased by this interruption

"Thank you Timothy, the word I was going to use was inebriated. Anyway Wood is now blaming Perry for breaking up our first proper drinking session since Halloween." it was nearly mid December, Charlie could see where Wood's frustration came from

"Does he- Perry that is often get like that?" asked the redhead, Timothy snorted

"Hardly, he didn't drink at all before he fell in with us... he doesn't drink enough to get that far gone often. Dunno what happened today to make him do that." he scratched his head smirking "We're a really bad influence on him and Wolfie now I think about it. I'm Tim Knight by the way, year below you, Ravenclaw." recognition kicked in

"And also commentator for Quidditch during my last year?" He checked, Tim nodded "That'd be me. This is Amy, my fiancé, also a raven." Charlie internally blanched at the thought people younger than himself were getting married, (he'd never counted Fleur among those younger than himself, she'd married his elder brother after all) but he outwardly grinned and was just about to reply when Wood's phone started ringing. Wood had one of those teeny muggle contraptions that Charlie's father was so fascinated with, the keeper pressed a series of buttons and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?...oh hi Ara, is the idiot still alive?" his voice picked up a little as he realised who he was talking to

"Did he... no, I'm not sure, hang on I'll ask." Wood's grin and tone of voice had become slightly false, he turned to Charlie

"D'ya remember Perry from school Weasley? He'd have been...four years below you I think." Amy's eyes widened and she whispered to Tim in a low voice, Charlie didn't notice this, he pulled a confused face then replied

"I...don't think so..?" Wood nodded and turned back to the phone

"We've gotta shoot," whispered Amy "Nice to see you Charlie, Bru would you pass on our goodbyes to Oliver?" the blond nodded, Tim waved, "See ya soon Weasley, you too Bru."

"Uh... bye?"

"...You better Arath or else I'll set Amy on you.." Wood was still on the phone, he was properly happy again now

"...Not now...I don't think even she could kill you over the phone. Besides, she's just left...Ok, see you then Ara." Wood put the phone down.

_I hate to end it there, I really do, but I've been working on this since the day after deathly hallows came out trying to get a better ending and if it's not come yet I don't think it's going to #sighs#. And it is quite a long chapter for me, the actual content is 1060 words and my average is about 600. Was it any good?_


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